I just think having uke and nage each take five steps back and then come forward would create an opportunity to work on the part of aiki that is about communication between uke and nage. Attention / intention type stuff that George Ledyard Sensei has developed a lot of material on, and has written about.

Something that has come up in this thread with regard to Sugano Sensei's paired sword exercises is that there is one where nage is supposed to make uke feel like they are being drawn into the attack. That's the kind of thing I am talking about. I think some of you guys are pretty quick to wave that away as though its just a component of swordfighting and isn't useful to Aikido.